A Chummy Boss's Day Party

Ahhhhhhhh!  I feel like a bear coming out of winter hibernation… my short-lived excitement in Spring gave way to the realization that I had a few nuts and berries that I needed to inventory and get straight before I could go running off in the crafty forest to sniff and color the flowers, bother the bees for their honey to glue my papers together, and capture a few fairies for some fairy dust… because who can make a card without a liberal sprinkling of glitter and magic?  So I retreated to my cave and got to the business of me for a bit. I missed crafting, but I knew if I focused on one thing at a time, when I did pick up a stamp again, I could really enjoy it. Health issues now in check, off meds, and nuts and berries mostly inventoried and organized (LOL), now it’s time to get out into the creative wilderness!

My first foray was, appropriately, on World Cardmaking Day last weekend. My coworkers had asked me to make our group card for Boss’s Day, which is October 16^th here in the States. I’m not even sure other countries celebrate Boss’s Day. The American commercial card industry has made just about everything a card-celebrated event by now. LOL  But I digress…  so, group card.  I was thinking through my stamp stash, trying to remember what group images I might have. I didn’t want to go the classy, floral route this year. First card back in 6 months, I wanted fun and “pop”. I remembered I had two Paper Smooches sets that I could use together to make my own crowd… and, hey, what’s a party without balloons?  So out came my recently purchased Simon SaysStamp balloon dies. (I must mention, to keep my sanity, I still ordered crafty supplies during my hiatus. I think it kept alive the belief that I would, indeed, be back in the craft room eventually!)

So this is the party I created…  (and please forgive the not-so-great cellphone pics. Took the card to work and almost forgot to take any photos!)

I stamped each of the Chubby Chums and Chubby Chum Pals with MFT Hybrid Ink and colored ‘em up with my Copics, who were quite pleased to be brought out into the light of day again. They weren’t so pleased that I was using a cardstock not really intended for Copics. My blending leaves something to be desired, but hey… this card is for non-crafters. If I have learned anything, it’s that non-crafters are too amazed by the artistry to notice the imperfections that cardcrafters immediately see… not to mention, they don’t ogle and drool over the works of artists like “The League of Supercardcrafters” –Jennifer McGuire, Kathy Racoosin, Kristina Werner, Sandy Allnock, Lauren Bassen, Heidi Crowl– or some of my faves Squirrel, Delphine, Lisa, Faye and Annette.

But again, I digress…  I fussy cut my little chummies and used black marker to clean up the edges and gave their eyes a bit of shine with some Glossy Accents.  I colored in the balloons with my Copics as well and then gave them a good sparkly emboss with Judikins Iridescent Sparkle powder. Then I spent the next half hour playing them in the light, and exclaiming, “Ooooh, sparkles!” over and over again. LOL  I fixed my front and inside white panels on a pretty sheet of blue raspberry cardstock from MFT and added a dotty border with Glossy Accents (inspired by Lauren Bassen), leaving it overnight to dry completely.  

I originally planned to fold my 8.5x11 paper in half lengthwise, but decided I liked a final 5.5x8.5 size better, so my little group had to budge up closer to each other than I had planned. I used foam tape to pop up two levels of chummies and did the same with their balloons, using a light thread to tie the balloons and give my chummies something to hold on to. I especially love that Pup on the end chose to tie his to his tail. =)  Since the front panel had gotten a bit crowded, Bear had decided to hang out on the inside of the card with a few small balloons and have a party of his own.

So, I’m off to gather some more materials and hit the craft room. My fingers are itching to get into some more stamps and I still have a crafty haul that has been sitting there waiting to be put away for a couple of months. Then I can wander out and have a good poke at the beehive and gather up some flowers and fairies. I’ve given myself a baby-step goal of at least a card a week… and Christmas is coming, so I’d better get cracking. =)

I might stop by and link this party up to the Paper Smooches Sparks challenge where it’s Anything Goes this week. I know the balloons are SSS, but it’s those adorable little Chums that steal the show. =)  You can find their challenge HERE: 

Til next time, happy crafting!

Christy

SAS4K Challenge DT Card: Things with Wings - Dragon Tales & Tropical Ostrich

For my PCJ DT card, click here
For my Flutterby Wednesday Guest DT cards, click here

Time again for another Send A Smile 4 Kids challenge... and this fortnight it's Things with Wings! Birds, bees, butterflies, fairies, angels, flying insects... or dragons! If it has wings, we want to see it on a card made for a kid!

This week we are especially pleased to be linking up with Flutterby Wednesday to do a card drive. Fellow SAS4K teamie Hilde and I are both guest designers on this week's Inspiration post - check out the challenge details here, and guidelines for donating cards here!

Our prize sponsors for this challenge are the lovely Stamping Dragon Designs and Karen's Doodles - both are offering up a few of their digis as prizes. Check out the details on the SAS4K challenge post!

Our sponsors also offered the DT some images to play with... my first pick was SDD's Jiggy's Book. I know the world of reading is going electronic, and although I am a fan of all the conveniences of modern life, one thing I will never be able to give up is my love for "dead tree" books. There is something about the tactile experience of holding a book, turning the pages, flipping back to reread, carrying it around with your finger between the pages to mark your spot while you visit the fridge for a drink... the smell of books in a library... the feeling of knowing you've only got a fraction of an inch's pages to read til you get to the end and slowing down to savor every last page. None of that do I get from swiping my finger across a screen or tapping a button. And the smell of electronics is not very interesting. LOL Anyway, I decided to make a removable bookmark with my little dragon image to encourage the dead-tree book habit in a younger generation.

After I submitted my DT photo for the SAS4K page, I decided that my card and bookmark needed a little glitter. I was worried about ruining it, so I held off for as long as I could, but you know me and those bottles of Stickles just can't be kept apart for long. LOL

Here is the before...

And here's the after...  what do you think?

I love these papers... they are from the DCWV pack Once Upon A Time. Lovely ethereal castles in the fog... prints and colors that make me think of my favorite tales of medieval-based fantasy worlds where swordfighting and magic and dragons are part and parcel of everyday life. So Jiggy reading his book on Dragon Tales might find himself at one of those castles. I used a lot of Tea Dye and Walnut Distress Inks on the papers, inking the edges and sponging over my papers.  

The set comes with both black and white and a colored image. I chose to use the colored image as it was exactly the colors I wanted, if a little bright. I used Word to tone down the brightness and used the mosaic bubbles effect to give a little aging. I also lightly sponged a bit of Antique Linen and Walnut Distress Inks over the printed image.

My Once Upon a Time sentiment stamp is from Magnolia. I also used an Italian font stamp from Hero Arts and both stamps were printed using DI.

The stamps that I used at the bottom and top of the bookmark are Flourishes by Crafty Secrets I used Walnut DI and then stamped again randomly using Versamark and embossing with clear UTEE for some gloss and shine. I tied on a bit of chocolate brown ribbon around the top.

I used Versamark and platinum gold Perfect Pearls burnished in with my fingertip on the border around the center piece and stamped over it with a celtic knot in gold. I cut two of the emblem circles (and in the end glittered the top one) which form a little pocket together with the sentiment flag to hold my bookmark.

Here they are separated.

 And a few more gratuitous shots in case you haven't already overdosed on photos...  LOL

My second card, which ended up being quite challenging for some reason, was Ollie Ostrich from Karen's Doodles...

I had fun coloring up Ollie, and I used white Liquid Applique on his feathery ruff to give it some dimension. I was planning to use the image as a rectangular white piece and highlighted him in a light blue, but then decided he needed to be trimmed out. I used an embossing stylus to round him out a bit and popped him up off the black cardstock with foam dots, which is why he doesn't look like he fits the black trim around him, unless you look at him straight on. I was fighting like mad with my paper cutter to cut straight so my cuts are all a bit wonky and driving me crazy. I've since sussed out the problem, so I'll probably take this apart and recut the black pieces before sending him off. Drunk crafter was not the look I was going for. LOL  The flowers are WOC and the pink ribbon is Offray-Berwick. Not too many embellies as I wanted simple and colorful. =)

So... hope you are inspired. There are lots of fantastic creations over on the Send A Smile 4 Kids challenge blog from my teamies, so head on over there and do consider joining the card drive challenge at Flutterby Wednesday as well as the SAS4K challenge! Happy Crafting!

Christy

SAS4K Challenge: CAS for Kids - Birthday cards

Happy Saturday!  Time again for a new Send A Smile 4 Kids Challenge and this time around it's Clean and Simple cards for Kids!

We've got three great prizes up for grabs:

a $15 gift certificate for the Doodle Pantry

3 sets of digis or cutting files from The Cutting Cafe

and 4 digis of the winner's choice from Sassy Studio Designs

The DT got some lovely digis to play with... first up is Harry from Sassy Studio Designs

I had a lot of struggles with this one. My first idea for a card used the entire digi. I can't tell you how many times I colored it... ok, I can. Four. Some of the areas were so small it was difficult for me to keep in the lines, but worse, even when I did, it would bleed. The fourth time I got pretty close, except for a bit of burgundy bleed on his hand and an unfortunately blue halo around his, well, let's say... behind him. LOL So I thought maybe I could salvage him if I fussy cut him out... and then, it happened. Oh, Harry. A broken wand. And no Elder Wand at the ready to magically repair it. Sigh.  I probably could have finagled some sort of Glossy Accents and toothpick support, but by that time I was too annoyed. I was going BIG on my next try! I sized Harry up to get his head and wand hand into a 5.5" square and added a sentiment in a Harry Potter font knockoff. I colored him up and added Glossy Accents to his glasses before layering it over a 6" black base card and adding some dark red gems. Clean and simple. And best of all? DONE! LOL

My next card went so much easier.... I saw Cowboy Birdie by the Doodle Pantry and I knew exactly what I wanted to do from the start...  

Cowboy Birdie comes in a set with both black and white line art and a colored version. I wechose colored, fussy cut and with a touch of diamond Stickles on his hat band and boot flames. =)  I created the main layer in Word, inserting a rectangle shape  with a bold black outline and filled with a red paisley digi paper from Summer Driggs' Freedom set at Summertime Designs. (LOVE her!) My sentiment is done in a font called Rustler. I popped Birdie boy and a little blue star I also Stickled to death (haha) on foam dots and then layered it up on black cardstock and added it to a 5x7 white card. A pop of bright color, plenty of white space and a touch of cute. =)

I'm itching to get crafting now! LOL Why don't you head on over to Send A Smile 4 Kids and check out my teamies' creations while I pull out a few Copics and a bottle of Stickles. I'll catch you later! 

Happy crafting!

Christy

Happy Bir'day, Brother!

Happy Saturday!

Been crafting up a storm today and have several cards done. This one is a birthday card for one of my brothers whose birthday is coming up. He often ends up getting combination 'birthday-Christmas' gifts from family members, poor guy.

It's another Bugaboo image, this time one of her great Winter Birds set, Friend:

The papers are a mix of an inexpensive pack I picked up two or three years ago at Walmart and unearthed in the Christmas decorations box, and a new DCWV pack. I colored my image with Copics, added glitter to the snow, Liquid Pearl dots to the bird's scarf, and a little white paint pen to the bird's yellow crest feather and belly, then cut it out with a scalloped Nestie. I used the end of one of the Label Nesties for my computer-generated sentiment, which is a play on the bird theme! =) I used thinner foam dots this time, so my card is still layered, but much more subtle.  A few gems here and there, grosgrain ribbon, more Martha Stewart punched snowflakes, et voila! A wintery birthday card in some great guy colors.

 

And a closeup of my image. His wing's a little streaky (too impatient to let some of the ink dry before tweaking, I guess!) but I think my coloring is improving. =) It's easier to see in real life, but if you look closely you can see the tiny white dots from the paint pen on his belly and on his crest feather. I'll have to play with that more in the future, I think. =)

Challenges for my birdbrain brother's card, I mean, for my brother's bird birthday card (heh heh)...

Bugaboo - Twelve Days of Christmas Day 4: Birds
Crafty Calendar - Cold and Frosty
Craft Your Passion - #87, Anything Goes with Glitter
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes
Cute Card Thursday - #194 Anything Goes
Totally Papercrafts - #96 Anything But Christmas
Chocolate, Coffee & Cards - Celebrate
Sweet Stampin - Things with Wings

I'll be back shortly with another of my creations! Happy Crafting!
Christy